Visiting a refugee camp in Jordan, the BGT judge watched girls and boys show off their talents in much the same way she does in her telly role - but one heartbreaking desire set the children apart from the usual hopefuls

Watching groups of kids battling it out on stage as they performed their best dance moves, songs and magic tricks was like any other day at work on Britain’s Got Talent for Amanda Holden .

Just as she does when she judges the ITV show, Amanda asked the youngsters what they would do with their cash prize if they won the competition.

But these children did not light up at the thought of going on holiday or helping their local community centres. These kids just wanted their lives back.

Because Amanda was watching a very different version of the talent show, one based in a camp housing Syrian refugees who have dodged bombs, bullets and sexual slavery in a desperate bid to flee their war-ravaged homes.

Amanda Holden with the children who live at Zaatari camp in Jordan (Image: Save the Children)

Amanda says: “I basically treated it like the show and joked around with them saying, ‘What’s your dream?’ and, ‘The next two minutes will change your life’. The response was like a movie.

“Literally every child kept saying the same thing, ‘We want to go back to Syria, we just want to rebuild our homes, we just want our childhoods back, we just want to feel like children again’.

The BGT judge wanted to raise awareness and support for the Syrian refugee children (Image: Save the Children)

“And obviously that’s not a prize that will ever be available to them.”

They called the show Zaatari’s Got Talent after the refugee camp in Jordan where they now live. There was a banner, judging table and a bell instead of a buzzer.

She visited the country with charity Save The Children (Image: Save the Children)

Amanda, 46, says: “They were so, so good.

“There was a boys’ choir who sang a song for Syria and, even though it was in a different language, I understood the sentiment and the song because you could see the emotion in their faces.

“I thought to myself, ‘I need to tell Simon Cowell that we need to get a camera into this camp’.”

Amanda spent two days visiting refugees (Image: Save the Children)

Amanda spent two days in Jordan, visiting the Zaatari camp 25 miles from the Syrian border and the Makani centre in Amman where children get psychological support to help them cope with the trauma they have experienced.

Mum-of-two Amanda spoke to 13-year-old Rasha, who fled from her hometown, the Syrian capital Damascus, after her school was hit by a bomb when she was just eight years old.

The BGT star listens to the children as they perform (Image: Save the Children)

Rasha was in the playground with her best friend when the blast struck.

Most of the boys playing football around her were killed – but that was not the worst of it. She saw her best friend with horrendous head injuries, the blood splattering across Rasha’s face.

Rasha was so traumatised she stood still for a week, stupefied by the death that was now part of her everyday life.

The telly star was impressed with the talent of the children (Image: Save the Children)

But that was not the end of the terror for Rasha. She later saw her mother electrocuted by soldiers and her two brothers were shot. Rasha herself was brutally dragged by her hair and hurled against a wall by soldiers.

Her mum suffered numerous strokes as a result of the torture and trauma she endured and now does not recognise Rasha, her youngest child.

As Amanda places a sympathetic hand on Rasha’s knee, the teenager asked her: “How can I ever be happy? I’ve lost everything. I smile, but inside I’m crying. I feel so much pain inside.

Amanda talks to 13-year-old refugee Rasha who fled her home in Damascus (Image: Save the Children)

“Not only have I lost my friends, but I have lost my mum, who doesn’t recognise me, and my family is separated as half my family are in Syria.”

Amanda, who was visiting Jordan in October with Save the Children as part of their Christmas Jumper Day appeal, struggled to comprehend the barbarity these children have witnessed.

The children told Amanda how they were desperate to return home (Image: Save the Children)

In 2011, she and husband Chris Hughes were devastated when their son was stillborn. She described her grief as “overwhelming”. Just a year later, she almost died herself giving birth to her youngest daughter Hollie. But the refugee camp was beyond anything Amanda had ever experienced before.

She says: “Obviously I have had my fair share of trauma. But after seeing these people I said, ‘Nothing is as important – whether it’s a new haircut, or a new car – as my kids’ health, my husband, my parents and my family.”

She says the experience made her realise that nothing is more important than family (Image: Save the Children)

“We’re all alive and love each other and we’re together. It made me think, ‘Every woman in the world is a tiger when it comes to protecting and looking after their own children’.”

There was one story which really hit home. Hadeel is also a mum of two, and her 11-year-old daughter Ayla is struggling to overcome shyness – just like Amanda’s own daughter Lexi, also 11.

Hadeel with her girls Ayla, 11, and Yana, eight (Image: Save the Children)

But the cause of Ayla’s shyness is horrific. The trauma of seeing soldiers threaten her family when she was just six years old left Ayla perpetually afraid for her life and struggling to speak.

Hadeel, also mum to Yana, eight, was attacked by armed soldiers and frequently saw dead bodies lying in pools of blood on the streets.

Amanda spoke to refugee families about the difficulties of life in Zaatari (Image: Save the Children)

Ayla was in the camp for year before she had the confidence to speak again. She found the courage to perform a heartfelt song for Amanda, having seen BGT on smartphones.

Amanda says: “They were an amazing family. I really related to Hadeel as she has two daughters too and her daughter had to overcome a great amount of shyness, like Lexi.

The visit had a profound effect on Amanda (Image: Save the Children)

“I said to Hadeel, ‘How do you find the strength?’ And she replied, ‘You just have to, as a mother’.”

The visit carried on affecting Amanda even when she returned to the UK.

She says: “We get to leave, we get to go and have a hot shower and settle down for the evening. I couldn’t stop thinking about that. I felt immensely guilty that I had the choice to do that.

The children escaped the horrors of civil war by leaving their home country (Image: Getty)

“This time of year it’s freezing and their heating consists of big oil drums filled with fire. They are no longer in their homes with their families at Christmas. They literally have nothing.”

Amanda found it tough telling Lexi and Hollie, five, about her trip. She bought two dresses for her girls from tailor Faris, 17, who works in the Makani centre. His work must sustain his family of eight, after his father died in Syria.

Amanda says: “These kids learn a lot of skills to prevent them from being taken as sex slaves and all the other horrendous things that can happen.

Ayla was left perpetually afraid for her life and struggling to speak after seeing soldiers threaten her family (Image: Save the Children)

Amanda shows off shy Ayla's picture (Image: Save the Children)

“Hollie loves her dress. But she couldn’t even get her head around the fact that some of these children don’t have their mummies and daddies.”

But Amanda did take positives from her experience. She says: “It was amazing to see the sense of community in the camp. The joy inside those buildings in Jordan is overwhelming.

“That sense of family is everything. In moments of trauma, you do think, ‘The only thing that’s important is my family, their health and our love for each other’.”

Amanda asks you to wear a Christmas jumper today and donate £2 to Save the Children. Go to christmasjumperday.org or, to give £5, text DONATE to 70050.